Cows not in initial prison farm plan

The cows may not be coming home to Kingston area’s two prison farm properties after all.

In a meeting that involved the citizen advisory committee dedicated to bringing back the prison farms that were closed in 2010, Correctional Service Canada, CORCAN and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office, it was announced that Joyceville Institution will manage goat dairy production and that there will be land management, crop and horticultural activities at both the Joyceville site and the farm at Collins Bay Institution.

The news didn’t sit well with Diane Dowling, citizen member and co-chair of the Prison Farm Advisory panel.

Since the farms were closed, local supporters of the return of the farms saw a symbolic meaning to the cows, some of which are descendants of the cows that were removed in 2010, returning to the Collins Bay Institution farm.

Dowling said members of the group are disappointed, shocked and probably angered over the exclusion of the cows.

Committee member Jeff Peters told the Whig-Standard last week after the Liberal government in its recent federal budget had set aside $4.3 million over the next four years so that the cows would return to produce milk for the manufacturing of cheese for use by the area institutions and Royal Military College. There would also be a new barn built for the 80 head of cows, as well as an on-site cheese factory.

Now that doesn’t appear to be the case.

"That was in our proposal," Dowling said. "We never saw the actual proposals that that went to the minister [Goodale] or were part of the discussions between corrections and the minister.

"We were told that one of the proposals was returning the farm to what it was before: crops and livestock operated by CORCAN."

Dowling said it’s standard practice to offer three proposals to the minister. The other two proposals were crops and livestock through public-private partnerships, and the third option involved crops and an animal sanctuary, the option wbeing promoted by the Evolve Our Prison Farms group.

Evolve Our Prison Farms representatives were not at the meeting on Wednesday and are not members of the citizens advisory panel.

"I’d have to say we were surprised by it, even though intellectually I knew that it could be anything," Dowling said. "But in our mind, the campaign of bringing back the prison farm was symbolized by bringing back the cows."

But Dowling and her group do not want to close the barn doors completely on the prospect of returning the cows.

Dowling said they will continue to push their proposal. They have a meeting scheduled for Friday with Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen and a teleconference call with minister Goodale next week.

Dowling beieves the move to dairy goats is because of the China-owned Feihe infant formula factory due to open in Kingston next year, with CORCAN possibly providing some of the goat milk it will need.

"Definitely it’s connected to the marketing opportunity with Feihe," she said. "In a way, we feel betrayed because we were certainly given lots of positive signals from Ottawa about the prison farms. Perhaps we were naive in interpreting that as involving the cows.

"We’re shocked, disappointed and frustrated because that was the centrepiece of the campaign."

Dowling said it’s also a disappointing situation for area farmers who are part of the pen herd co-operative, which has cared for former penitentiary cows and their descendants since 2010 and was hoping to sell them back to CORCAN.

In an interview with the Whig-Standard on Thursday, Gerretsen said he found out about the no-cows development on Wednesday as well.

"I was a little bit surprised about the cows," he said.

Gerretsen said he is not sure what his stance on the issue is before speaking to the group.

"That’s why I want to meet with them [on Friday] to see what I can do to help them to set up an operation that includes dairy cows," he said.

"It’s unfortunate and I’m disappointed by the fact that the cows won’t be established right away, but my understanding is a dairy operation with cows is more elaborate to set up, and what [CORCAN is] proposing is something they can get up and running fairly quickly."

Gerretsen said the operation would involve about 300 to 400 goats, and he thinks goats are a good option with the Feihe factory opening in 2019.

Gerretsen said perhaps a dairy operation can come later.

"My interpretation is this is the starting point and not the be all and end all, and more options will present themselves as the programs start to prove their value," he said.

Dowling said the citizen members of the farm advisory panel take the view that it was at least a positive message that confirmed the return of the prison farms program.

"Clearly there’s a disappointment with not having dairy cows involved, but we will be continuing to work with CORCAN and CSC and continuing to advocate for the dairy cows."

No one from Goodale’s office was made available for comment on Thursday.